Volume 28, Issue 4, 18 May 2016, Pages 479-506
Grupo Aragosaurus-IUCA, Departamento de Ciencias de la Tierra, Universidad de Zaragoza, Calle Pedro Cerbuna, 12, Zaragoza, Spain
Abstract
Carnivores are a
common element in Pleistocene fossil assemblages. However, they are not
so abundant in terms of the numbers of remains. Here, we present a
palaeontological study of the carnivores from the Late Pleistocene (MIS
3) of Los Rincones (Spain), one of the few deposits accumulated by
leopards. One hundred and ten leopard remains have been recovered. This
carnivore is not the only inhabitant of the cave, and 175 remains
belonging to Ursus arctos have also been recovered, making it one of the
sites with the greatest number of brown bear
remains in the Iberian Peninsula. The large number of leopard remains
has allowed us to make a detailed morphological and biometrical study
that has enabled us to classify the remains within the subspecies
Panthera pardus spelaea. The European Ice Age leopard inhabited Europe
during Upper Pleistocene and it presents some similarities with Panthera
uncia. A study of the scarce remains of Canis lupus indicates that this
was similar in size to Canis lupus maximus; the scarcity of the remains
prevents us from assigning our remains to this subspecies. A study of
the brown bear remains
indicates that it is similar to other populations in the north of the
Iberian Peninsula with this chronology. © 2016, © 2014 Taylor &
Francis.
Author keywords
Canis lupus; Late Pleistocene; Panthera pardus spelaea; taxonomy; Ursus arctos
Indexed keywords
Species Index: Canis lupus; Panthera pardus; Uncia uncia; Ursus arctos
